TymeBank inspires South Africans to reach their potential with ‘You’ve Got This’

TymeBank inspires South Africans to reach their potential with ‘You’ve Got This’

26 February 2019

Johannesburg, 26th February 2019: South Africa’s first digital bank, TymeBank has launched. It turns traditional banking on its head by slashing fees and giving customers real incentives to save. Marking this much-anticipated milestone is its brand campaign, ‘You’ve Got This’. It went live nationwide on Sunday 24th February.

“Since we started building our bank we have always put our customers at the heart of everything we do,” says Luisa Mazinter, TymeBank’s Chief Marketing Officer. The TymeBank transactional account has no monthly fees, many day-to-day banking transactions are free and savings can earn up to 10% interest per annum.

“We have worked really hard to make our EveryDay account as affordable and accessible as possible. We spend our days thinking about how we can remove the complexity and costs that traditional banking attracts,” says Mazinter. “We have an unfaltering belief in the potential of the people of this country, we think that every South African should be financially empowered to live their life on their terms. And we have developed a product that enables them to do just that.”

This purpose is etched into the very fabric of the bank, from product design to IT to marketing, and its brand message had to encapsulate this sentiment.

“We wanted to communicate this message in a way that was not contrived, was motivating, relevant and that had a completely different and refreshing tone from all other banks in the market,” explains Mazinter.

Assets and liabilities

To do this TymeBank first needed to define the bank’s unique voice and visual identity and then had to focus on how it would launch its new brand in a way that would stand out in a mature market where some of the incumbents had been around for over 100 years. The first expression of this unique identity is the ‘You’ve Got This’ campaign.

“You’ve Got This’ is a power statement. It’s a phrase that is used in everyday conversation, one that South Africans across all age groups and demographics understand. It puts consumers firmly in control, giving them confidence and inspiring them to turn their aspirations into reality,” says Mazinter.
“More than that, it verbalises our core belief in the potential of the people in this country. It’s what you say to someone before they’re about to do something important, to give them support and show them that you believe in them.”

To deliver this message in the most authentic way possible, the multi-channel campaign uses real people, over 30 different South Africans, who tell the TymeBank story, by telling their own. While these characters represent a rich tapestry of human diversity, their common link is their attitude: they know who they are and they know who they’re going to be. All they need is a bank that recognises their potential and gives them the tools they need to achieve their goals.

“Other banks look at people’s current financial situation, we look beyond this, at their aspirations and their potential. Our ad taps into this insight by showing everyday South Africans narrating a formal declaration of their personal assets and liabilities, but in our case they go beyond the numbers and talk about the assets that really matter and the liabilities that underpin their unflinching will to succeed,” says Mazinter.

“For us this was a fresh and very relevant message from a bank that wants to make banking accessible and affordable for all South Africans. A bank that doesn’t look at what you have today, but at who we know you have the potential to be.”

While these ‘characters’ are the stars of the TVC, their stories also play out across digital channels allowing South Africans to engage with them on a more meaningful and personal level.

The voice of the customer

“Social media plays a major role in our campaign, not least because it provides a real-time gauge of what our customers think and what resonates with them. This is very important to us; we don’t want to be that brand that is out of touch and tells customers what we think they want to hear. We listen and we take our customers’ feedback back into the business, our product and our marketing,” says Mazinter.

This customer-first approach is evident in the story of the @TymeGuy. This online profile was born the day the bank went live. “We noticed a very active community discussing us on the popular tech forum MyBroadband, so we immediately engaged. These were our early adopters, customers who off their own bat had tried our product and were actively discussing areas for improvement. One of our senior leaders in the business jumped in to answer their questions and has been doing so ever since. We’ve addressed every point raised by this community and it has helped us create a better product to take to market. We feel confident that we have a value proposition that South Africans will see value in and want to use and we will tell our story through the power of their voices, not our own,” concludes Mazinter.

About TymeBank: TymeBank is South Africa’s first digital bank. It is owned by ARC Financial Services Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a company within Patrice Motsepe’sUbuntu-Botho Investments stable. TymeBank has no branches and its core banking system is hosted securely in the Cloud. This reduces its overheads and delivers significant cost-savings that are passed on to its customers. Through a distribution partnership with Pick n Pay and Boxer, TymeBank has kiosks located at stores across the country. Customers can open a FICA compliant bank account at these kiosks in under five minutes. No documentation is required. Once signed-up customers can automatically become Smart Shopper members – Pick n Pay’s rewards programme – and will earn one point for every R3 spent everywhere and every time they swipe their TymeBank card, not just in Pick n Pay. They will earn double Smart Shopper points when they use their TymeBank card to swipe and pay inside a Pick n Pay store. TymeBank’s unique GoalSave tool, allows customers to earn a great interest rate of up to 10% per annum on their savings. For more information visit www.tymebank.co.za.